Kyrgyzstan
The mountains, including the Tian Shan Mountains (pictured), give Kyrgyzstan a unique
culture, partially formed from this isolation from the mountains.
Go Now!

Ethnicity, Language, & Religion of Indonesia

Ethnicity

The ethnicities within Indonesia number in the hundreds,
if not thousands and each island has a fairly distinct ethnic makeup. The most populated
islands also comprise the largest ethnic groups, including the Javanese (40% of
the population) and Sundanese (15%), both of whom live on the island of Java, but
spread to other islands. These two groups, along with the many other groups, are
nearly all in the same ethnic family as they are most closely related to the
Malays and other people from the larger Polynesian group.

Language

Bahasa Indonesian is the only official language of Indonesia;
this language is very similar to Malaysian and, like that language, is part of the
Polynesian language family. As a very large and diverse country, there are dozens
of other languages natively spoken by the people of Indonesia as many islands have
their own language or dialect. Despite the dozens of native languages in the country,
most people communicate from island to island in Bahasa Indonesian.

Dutch and English are common second languages in Indonesia, but primarily only university-educated
people speak these languages with any fluency. In business and tourism these languages
are widely spoken as are other popular international languages, but in much smaller
numbers.

Religion

About 85% of Indonesia's population is Muslim, making
it the largest Muslim country in the world in regards to number of adherents. Among
the last 15% of the population, about a third of them are Protestant Christian and
there are also smaller numbers of Roman Catholics and Hindis.

Islam (the name of the religion, whose followers are called Muslims) is a monotheistic
religion, whose holy book is called the Qur'an. The Qur'an is believed to
be the word of God spoken through the prophet Muhammad from 609-632 CE (Common Era
is preferred over AD (Anno Domini or "year of the Lord") since the Islamic
world doesn't believe Jesus was the messiah). Islam believes Muhammad was the
last prophet sent to earth by God, the last in a long line of prophets, which includes
Moses, Abraham, and Jesus among others.

Muslims follow five pillars of their faith: testimony, prayer, alms-giving, fasting,
and pilgrimage. These pillars, and other tenants of their faith, can give great
structure to their lives as some foods, like pork, are forbidden and every Muslim
is expected to pray five times a day. However, the level of participation in each
of these pillars and to what degree Islam influences an individual's life varies
from person to person and community to community. Generally speaking, Indonesia
is fairly liberal in how they practice Islam.